Anyone have an anchor?

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I swear that someone put speed in the water for the last two weeks of October. Last week was just crazy. Between work, school and other obligations, I felt like I was on a bullet train.

Wednesday, Spike got one of the cats. Didn’t know which one, as we couldn’t find it.

Thursday was suppose to be a day off. Ha! I went to KnitWits, my knitting group. We went to Pueblo on a field trip to visit Colorado Fiber Arts, a really cool yarn store. Then we had lunch at a place called Bingo Burger. I had a lamb burger and it was heavenly!!! Oh, and sweet potato fries with curry ketchup. Yummm… However, when we got home, Dan and I had to take the little gray kitten to the vet. Spike had ripped her lower lip off. Nothing to do for it, so we had her put to sleep. Dan also got a call from our one client in Denver. We wanted to borrow my parent’s truck. Not a problem except that Dad went to change the oil and couldn’t get the filter off. So after we put the cat to sleep, we went over to help Dad. Wheee…

Friday, we left right after I got done with work. Drove to Denver after a stop for lunch at Bingo Burger. More lamb burgers were consumed. Yumm!!! We arrived 10 minutes past when we said we’d be there. Not bad for city traffic. Four hours later we were done. Spent the night in a hotel and oh…. it was so nice to soak in a tub!!!

The next morning, we got candy at Target and then headed over to my sister Lori’s house. We visited for about an hour and I harvested 10 pounds of concord grapes. Yummm….. The smell was heavenly. Then we dropped books off at Isis and headed home. A stop in Pueblo for…. yeah, more lamb burgers. LOL… Only one down side of the day. We forgot to call my parents and tell them we were spending the night. They worried and were not happy with us, as should be expected. We apologized, and promised that next time we would call. Felt so stupid. Had to go do laundry as well.

Sunday was sort of a weird day. Tried to get things done. Handed out lots of Halloween candy, cooked down the grapes into syrup and worked on the computer.

Monday I went to work only to find out that my hours have been cut yet again. sigh…. It rained and slushed. Brrr!!! Then I had a ton of paperwork to process at the court house. And, Stefan’s house taxes are paid! Wheeee!!! By the time everything was done, all I really wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep for a week. Instead, Morgan, Dan and I watched the Bounty Hunter. It was a riot.

Today was another run around like crazy day. Dan helped Dad unload and stack 2 cords of wood. Then we went and voted. After that, we did some errands around town. By the time we got home, about all I could do is make dinner. Tamale pie!!!! Lovely comfort food for a cool day. We ate dinner while watching Wolfman. It was a pretty good movie. Now we are watching the election results. The bad trio of amendments 60, 61 and proposition 101 did NOT pass. (phew!) The rest of the stuff is up in the air.

Did anyone get the number of that bus?

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Yesterday was just blahhhhhhh….. Woke up in the middle of the night too hot, but didn’t think about it. It’s autumn, and some nights it is 40F and other nights it is 65F. Went to work and felt tired. Okay, crazy hours catching up with me. Ate breakfast, felt better. I went to work and did alright for about an hour. Then I realized that I felt hot even away from the stoves. Working in a kitchen is a real test some days. 12 burners, 2 grills, a deep fryer… need I say more? So, I stand up and realized I feel Wwwwwooooosy. Not good. Get a drink, take a break, I’m okay. I go back to making pies. 15 minutes later, wwwwwooooosy. Hm…. Feeling very hot, and I am NOT standing next to the stoves. Hmmm… Another glass of water and a break. No, I am not feeling better. By this time, it is 10:15am. I’ve been here for over 2 hours, and most of my work is done. Time to go home before I fall down. So, I tell my boss that I’m feeling ill, and call Dan. He says he will be right there. I go outside to meet him.

He was 15 minutes late because the phone rang. Brrrrrr…. Sunny but windy. Of course. I get home and stuff myself in bed. It is 10:45am. Next thing I know, it is 2:30pm. Look at the clock, fall back asleep. 5pm, I finally got up. Still feel a bit wrung out, but I am hungry and thirsty. Morgan is home, Dan is off at a job. We heat up some dinner and have coconut cream pie for dessert. Dan gets home around 8pm, and I curl up with my book. We went to bed before midnight, only to be woke up around 1am by a dog fight. Spike and another dog fought. Spike got a bit chewed, but he won. The other dog ran. Last thing I remember is Dan reminding me to call Daniel in the morning.

I woke up at 9am this morning. Yawn… It is cold and rainy today, but I actually feel a bit better. Still a little fuzzy around the edges, but better. I hope that Dan and Morgan don’t get whatever it was I had.

 

Yet another catch up post on life in ‘Burg!

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I have to admit that I am so tired of computer problems. Hard drive failure, mother board fritz, change operating system, do it again, swap computers with Morgan… Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am still having freezes, loss of data-three pages of a story- and other issues. Right now, I am working off of Dan’s computer yet again. pout. I really don’t need the extra stress in my life.

On another note, I have most of my possessions from the other house. John has been fairly decent about things. I think once he realized I was serious and what I wanted was not to cut everything down the middle, it has gone well. (knock on wood) I have a few books left to pick up and the three big items of furniture will stay there until they can replace them or I can pick them up. (a bed, dresser and coffee table) Otherwise, the rest is here with me. 🙂 I spent part of last week moving stuff when I wasn’t fighting my computer. Now I’m just trying to find a place to put all of it in this house.

Last week was busy in other ways. Last Saturday, Dan discovered that most of the supports under the front porch had fallen. So, we drove to Pueblo and bought the lumber we needed to shore up the porch. We also had to pull everything off of the front porch to lighten the load. It made the whole house look like it was under construction. Sunday was prop up the porch day. Dan and Ian worked most of the day. I stayed in the main part of the house and tried not to flinch when the jack dropped or I heard cussing coming from under the porch. We will be rebuilding the porch in the next year or two. Dan was really hurting by the time they finished as he worked the jack most of the time. Once they were done, I got to start putting my sewing room back together. We also worked on the front yard, by moving rocks, raking and digging until it looked less like a pile of weeds.

Monday…. the week started like we never had a weekend. Morgan had volleyball games, I worked and on Wednesday the Tannahill Weavers played at La Plaza. Dan and I did the lights. It was a great concert, and I think I have my hearing back by now. We were right under the speakers and in front of the bag pipe player. Oh that was loud. 😛 Then on Friday,we headed to Alamosa for a WorkForce meeting. William Beverly went with us and we had a good afternoon. Lots of conversation and a nice late lunch at Cavillo’s.Saturday I worked and then collapsed in the afternoon. 🙂 Sunday Dan and I both slept in for the first time in a few weeks.

The plans for the next two weeks are plumbing, oiling the floors, and cutting down the other tree in the front yard. It is dying and we could use the firewood. Once Dan gets paid for some of the jobs he’s done of late, we will be working on the cars and hopefully getting a new computer for me. Until then, I will work on his computer.

Where the ‘ell do I start?

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Okay, this is the third time I’ve tried to write this post. Sigh. My computer is having snit fits.

Last week was the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival.Take a peek at their website!

I did a lot of baking for two bake sales I had promised I’d do for Barbara Yule. Thursday after work, we headed up to the Ceilidh in Gardner. It was wonderful. Lots of good music and almost every act played. Morgan joined us after her volley ball game. Gardner won!
Friday was the picnic at Uptop which is the ghost town at the top of Old La Veta Pass. The bake sale was good and the music great!. That night, we worked the concert at the Fox Theater in Walsenburg. Ed Miller and John Taylor followed by Chris Newman and Mairi NiChathasaigh. Lovely lovely evening.

Saturday, I baked more items and we then went to the concert at the Fox. This time it was the Shamrock Kitchen Quartet. Singing and Sean Nos dancing. Once again a wonderful evening. Sunday we got up early, packed a ton of baked goods into the truck and headed to La Veta for the morning bake sale. We did really good and headed over to the concert with Colcannon Express. Fantastic music. We had a great time. The whole festival was wonderful.

Monday, I woke with a Migraine… Ugggghh… too much sun, not enough water, and stress. Wonderful combo. NOT. I crawled to the aspirin, and Dan brought me the phone so I could call off work. I was in bed most of the day. By about 6pm, I began to feel human. I read a bit and then went back to bed.

Tuesday, I was up and moving, because I had Jury Duty.

I was there by 8:15am. I didn’t expect to be chosen. I was the last juror chosen. We took a lunch break and the trial started at 2:30pm. It was a Domestic Violence type case. We heard all the evidence, saw pics, listened to witnesses. We went into deliberation around 7pm, and they got us dinner. After a lot of deliberation, discussion, agreements, disagreements, and more discussion, we finally decided that while something obviously happened, that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict. We had way too many doubts. So, about 8:45pm, we gave the judge our verdict. You could tell that the DA and the Judge thought we were nuts, but we just couldn’t choose anything other than Not Guilty on the evidence we were given. That whole thing about ‘reasonable doubt” takes on a whole new meaning when you look at the laws. I got a certificate. That was just strange. It even has the court case on it. As I waited for Dan to pick me up, the defendant came out and thanked me as he passed. I just nodded.

I got home at 9:15pm, and was asleep before I could even hit the pillow.

Today I went to work, did a bunch of errands. I met with John and told him again that I want a divorce and sent him a list of stuff I want from the house

Tomorrow I’m going to catch up on the tons of email I have to read and then I’m going to start working on the house. I have a big urge to do Fall Cleaning!!!

A very odd day

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We borrowed my parent’s truck on Friday and went to Pueblo. We had some parts to pick up for a job Dan has on Monday. Plus, we decided to buy some groceries and Morgan needed some school clothes. We ran around and did the job shopping first. Then we went to lunch at Wendy’s. Morgan biffed the door and did the whole spin and land on the floor thing. She felt so ditzy.

Then we went to the ARC. It’s a second hand shop, and while we looked at tons of clothing, the only things we got were a pair of sleep pants for Morgan and 6 tiny bread pans for me. Figured that it would be useful to have them when I do the bake sale for the the Celtic Music Festival in a couple of weeks.

Then we went to Old Navy. Morgan found 2 pairs of jeans, a top and a pair of exercise shorts. After that, we went to Walmart and found her 3 sports bras. All total, about $65 worth of clothing. Sort of an expensive month when we add in the $20 I paid Gardner school so that her athletic fees would be paid. Oh well. Hopefully, I will get some more hours and not be so short on cash the rest of the month.

Then we drove home. It was a crazy day, but a fun one.

Home again, home again…..

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We arrived home at midnight last night. Oh, and of course I had to get up and go to work this morning. Yawn…..Yawn….Yawn…. I’m just a little tired.
I am still laughing about the white thongs and the wedding dress! Plus, the fact that the Justice of the Peace was confused over who was the bride and groom cracked us up. The Chinese buffet was great, and afterwards we went home and relaxed. We had a pizza party and watched movies for dinner. Not the traditional wedding reception, but we didn’t mind.
The next day, the 28th, was Bryan’s birthday. After sleeping in, we goofed around for a while. Then Dan and I went shopping. I got prezzies for the boys… yes, all three. Talon and Gavin got these little dragons. Bryan got more ammo for his Nerf guns. We also grabbed lunch.
Then, Bryan, Katie, the grandbabies and Morgan went to Hebber Lake. They went swimming. Dan and I went with Stefan, Anabell, and some of his friends out to a ranch where he goes hiking. We had a jeep drive and then took a hike. Yes, I took lots of pictures. 🙂
When we got home, we had barbecue. Pork, chicken, eggplant, squash and corn. Yummm… Then we had cake and ice cream. Oh, and lots of beer and other alcohol. Movies were watched and Stefan, Anabell and I went off to a coffee house to meet with some of his friends. It was a nice end to the evening. Funny bit was all of his friends reacting to the ‘oh my god! His mom is Just like He Said she was!!!!’
By the time I got home, Morgan was asleep, and Dan and Bryan were silly drunk. It was so funny. Funny bit was Bry and Dan wrestling. They were about matched.
Next morning, I woke up with a migraine. Dan woke up with a hangover. Tons of aspirin later, we left by 7:30am. Of course we forgot things which Bryan has promised to mail. Sigh…. my teacup… Oh well. The drive was interesting. Trying to deal with a headache in a car is not good, but I survived. It was HOT! I was so glad when the sun went down.
Oklahoma was Still under construction. So were parts of New Mexico. Most of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico roll up the sidewalks on Sundays. We had a heck of a time trying to find food that wasn’t fast food. Oh well.
Over all, the trip was great. It was lovely to see everyone. However, Arkansas in August is like crawling into a wet hot dryer. Uggghh….. Next time I will go in December, like I did last time.

Cooking in the kitchen!!!

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‘Cause it is HOT!!!

Wednesday was the potluck. That was great. Had fun, talked with people I hadn’t seen in a while and listened to good music.I got home around Midnight.

Thursday. I went to work at La Plaza Inn, and Dan went to the Fox Theater. Old Blind Dogs were playing and he was doing the lights. Meanwhile, I cooked and helped at the kitchen. We had food ready for after theater crowd that came over for the jam session. Apparently while the theater was crowded, there were maybe 50 people at the jam session. Sort of sad, as we’d cooked lots of nice food. I got home at 2:15am. Yawn.

Friday, I wasn’t suppose to work. However, Karen called wanting my help. She hadn’t been able to get into the kitchen all day and felt behind. So, I went in at 5:30 and finished at around 9:45pm. Yawn. Luckily for me, Dan walked down and walked home with me.

Today, I slept in a bit, but was still to work by 11am. Lots of stuff to do for the banquet, and we got it done with about 30 minutes to spare. Morgan came down and served at it because it was being sponsored by Huerfano County Youth Services. The evening went great. The food was good and everyone was happy.

We started to walk home around 9pm, and then discovered that the guys were headed to Carl Jr’s for dinner. So, we met them there and then walked home. Oh gods was I tired. I think I will head to bed soon. Yawwwwwwwwn….

Oh, and Ian’s Grandma will let us borrow the van for Sunday. She got panicked about us using it on Friday. A bit of Sturm und Drang operatic soap opera, but… we will borrow it at least this one time. Otherwise, I hope to have a car of some sort working soon. I am truly tired of having to bum rides.

Okay, Who Took February???

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One minute I was watching the groundhog see his shadow, the next it’s Daniel’s birthday. All I could think was who took February???

It really was a busy month. Morgan one a CCIRA award for a short story she wrote. Dan was already going up to Denver to visit with his girlfriend, so we all went. Ian, Morgan, Dan and I headed to Denver. We stopped in Pueblo and got Morgan a dress. It is really pretty. Two different hotels, one with a pool. 🙂 We picked up Ruth and went out for dinner and then played in the pool. 🙂 Everyone had a great time. Next morning, we got up and after getting lost a few times made it to the Award Ceremony. She got her award, and we then changed clothes and headed to the Denver Art Museum. Lots of cool stuff like a bungie cord maze,  red foxes in a dinning room setting and art… A lovely time.

I got home just in time to turn around and head to La Junta for Census Training. I have a job with the Census. Bad part was that it was SNOWING!!!! We were suppose to take Ian back to Alamosa, but the car died. We decided to turn around and poof, the car stated. So, I borrowed Daniel’s car and Dan and I drove to La Junta. We had a lovely soak in the hot tub and a nice swim before we crawled into bed. Training was okay, and we came home Monday night.

That week I was suppose to have a break from school. I did. I just spent most of it in bed sick. akkkkk!!!!

Caron and Ian came down for Valentines day. 🙂 It was a nice treat. What was really nice was to be taken care of for a day while we both were so sick. The next week, we talked with Ian and realized just how unhappy he was at Adam State. So, we went and picked him up. Moved him right in. 🙂 To say he is happy is an understatement.

The next week, I had more Census training. Which brings me back to this week. Our first day of real Census work was Monday. It snowed. I think we got a good 5 inches. I am an assistant crew leader, so I help with handing out census forms as well as do sort of mid level admin work. The next month is going to be very busy as we hand out a form to every person in the county.

Oh!!!! I made my favorite cake with carob tonight for Daniel’s birthday. As far as everyone else was concerned, it tastes better than the chocolate version!!!! I am so glad, because I have missed my cake!!!!

Now that I have finally caught up, it is bed time!!!

Saturday, here in the ‘burg…

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Trying to get back into sync with the world.

2010

December went out quickly. Here is Morgan as one of the three kings. She is the one in the purple cloak. It was avery nice production.

Yule was nice. Dan and I had a quiet morning watching the sun come up while sipping our tea.

We did the last of the train performances on the 23rd. Reconnected with an old friend, Caron Bressan. She stayed for dinner and we talked all night. 🙂 She came by another day and once again, we visited for a long time.

December 29th, John called around 10am. Morgan, my DIL had her baby at 9:36am. 8.1 pounds and 19.5 inches long. Ewan Nicholas.

New Year’s Eve, we spent with Caron watching movies, eating and giggling. She finally headed home around 4am.  I think we slept most of New Year’s Day. And of course, I’m trying to get caught up on everything so that when classes start tomorrow I am ready to go. I got to see Ewan for the first time today too. He is a cuddly small armful.

And back into the Icebox!!!

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Last night it started to rain.  We went to bed fairly early because Morgan had a field trip to go on and they had to leave at 6am this morning. At some point in the night, the rain turned to snow. Daniel turned up around 2:15am. He didn’t want to fall asleep and not be able to be woken up. I woke up at 3am, when something pissed off the skunk. Oh gads! The smell sent me into an asthma attack. 4am, my alarm went off. Dan was suppose to get up, but didn’t want to move. I don’t blame him. 4:25am, Dan and Morgan finally got up and moving. It was snowing and they knew that they needed to get on the road. Dan, Daniel and Morgan left around 5am for Gardner. I went back to bed, as I could finally breathe.

7:35am-The phone rings. Daniel. “Hi mom, we’re stuck in the mud and Erin is coming to pull us out.” Huh? Okay. I figured that they had gone off the road and were just stuck on the side of the road. I hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

8:58am-The phone rings. It’s John this time telling me that Daniel and Dan are still stuck, Erin couldn’t get them out of the mud, and that they were waiting for Daniel’s Towing Service to unstick them. Great… The boyz went Mudding. What the hell were they thinking? I debated rolling back over and going to sleep versus getting up. While I lay there debating, Dan and Daniel arrived. Dan was soaked and mud covered. They were hauling the hose out of the back yard to clean off Daniel’s car. I got up and took a peek. There must have been ten pounds of mud on it.

Brandy and Blanca of course took advantage of the chaos to run off. Dumb dogs!

They hosed it off, and Daniel headed home to shower and hopefully get his car fixed. He had planned to get a ball joint or something like that repaired today. If he couldn’t, he was just going to sleep. While fixing breakfast, Dan told me what really happened. They had gotten Morgan safely to school and were almost home when they decided to go play in the arroyos near Toltec. Dan said to Daniel that this probably was NOT a good idea. Daniel, being Daniel said “Well, I want to” and off they went. They did fine right up until they hit clay. The sand in the arroyo was okay. However, the mud was…. sticky, sucking and treacherous. Daniel almost got them out. he slid off the ‘road’ and that was it. So, they called Erin, who has a big 4WD pickup. Daniel’s is a 4WD Blazer.

Erin came out and couldn’t even get near Daniel’s Blazer. He got stuck twice and finally gave up. So, they called the towing company. The guy with the tow truck has a Mudder truck that he tows with for situations like this. He almost got stuck. It took Everyone, 8 wheels, two drivers and lots of luck to finally get the Blazer out. The guy told Daniel he was lucky! gads! Boyz!

Dan said the mud was sucking the shoes off of his feet, and rivaled Montana mud. (and that is something to rival!)

So, now we are curled up with a fire in the fireplace, the two dumb dogs have returned and are drying off on the back porch, Spike is with me in the house and the cats are on the front porch. Dan keeps saying he will take a nap. (ha! silly boy) At least he did crawl in bed even if he does have his computer with him.

There is about 10 inches of snow out there and it is still snowing. Such fun. I’m going to finish this post, play on the net a few more minutes and then go back to writing my story.